The Sleeping Beauty Job
by StaroftheDunedain
Summary: In all fairy tales lies a little truth. Eliot had never thought of himself as a knight-in-shining-armor, but, hey, even thieves deserve happily ever after. Retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Co-authored with JustWhelmed. Eliot/OC Rated just in case.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I am co-writing this with my buddy JustWhelmed. Because she's epic. I'm taking care of this chapter though, so don't blame her.

Disclaimer: We don't own anything you recognize.

Once upon a time in a far away kingdom… Well, that is not entirely true. It was not particularly far away, only in Boston. And it did not take place too long ago. That is not really what is important. Time and place are not what matter in a fairytale. What matters is that you have a damsel in distress, a white knight, an evil villain, and magic. Fairies are nice too, but not absolutely necessary.

And so our story begins.

Nate and Sophie always paused in the doorway of the bar to watch perspective clients. Andrew Culpepper looked like most of them; young, pale, shifting nervously on his stool, eyes flickering around the room like a nervous colt. Abnormally though, he seemed to be accompanied by three little old ladies. The women seemed perfectly at ease; white, old lady hair piled on top of their heads, bedazzled track suits, one in blue, one in pink, and one in green.

The two thieves exchanged a look. "Ready?" Nate asked.

"Always."

Sophie plastered her best, most comforting smile on her face and slid onto the stool next to Andrew. "Mr. Culpepper?" She put out her hand for a nice shake. "I'm Sophie Devereaux. I think you've already spoken with Nate."

"Nice to meet you in person, Mr. Ford."

The elderly woman in the pink leant over the bar awkwardly. "I'm Stacy. This is my sister Macy." The one in blue nodded. "And my other sister Lacy." The one in green gave them a cheery wave. "We were Andrew's nannies when he was small. We took care of him and his sister." She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and dabbed at her suddenly tear-filled eyes. (Out of the corner of their vision, Nate and Sophie saw the other two women doing the same thing)

"It's all right, Aunt Stacy," Andrew said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry." Stacy smiled weakly. "The poor girl."

Nate cleared his throat, trying to steer this _highly _unorthodox interview into something more manageable. "Your sister? In our initial interview you said that she was in some kind of trouble.

All three elderly women promptly burst into tears.

While Nate and Sophie were trying to deal with the flood of emotions, Hardison, Parker, and Eliot came down the stairs and slid into the booth on the other end of the bar.

"Are there three old ladies with the client?" Hardison asked.

Eliot just grimaced. "I don't like old ladies."

"I do." Parker disagreed. "They smell like cats."

Nate decided that the best plan was to throw Sophie to the wolves. "Here, Andrew, let's you and I talk over there, while the ladies, uhm, sort it out."

He gave his compatriot a sympathetic glance in reply to the death glare she shot his way, all the while rubbing the shoulders of the distraught woman in blue.

Andrew and Nate settled into the booth right in front of the other three thieves. "I am so sorry," the young man said sincerely. "I did not mean to bring them. I think they hacked my email or something." He huffed out a short, tense laugh. "When my sister and I were kids, we thought they were magic."

He stared down at his empty glass like he wished it was full again.

Nate knew the signs of stress and gave the other man an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "Tell me about your sister."

"Dawn. She's my half-sister, but I barely remember a time before she came into my life, she or Mom, her mom, but, yeah." He took a deep breath. "I'm only five years older than her."

"'Dawn?' Dawn Culpepper?" Nate frowned. "Why is that name familiar?"

"'Bout five years ago, she wrote an international best-selling teen book—a retelling of the Little Mermaid."

"Right." Nate had never read it, but he remembered when it came out.

"I guess I should start at the beginning. My dad, Richard Culpepper, we've got a lot of family money, Culpepper engines." Nate nodded, familiar with the company. "But Rosamund, my step-mom, she was independently wealthy as well. A bakery. Perrault's Cakes. Do you know it?"

Nate nodded again.

In the next booth, Eliot nodded as well. "They're like Little Debbie's, but they sell mostly to restaurants and are much higher quality."

"Right…." Hardison snickered and then winced when the hitter kicked him under the table.

Fortunately, Andrew did not hear them and continued his story. "The bakery, it passes from mother to oldest daughter, but Rosamund was taken by cancer when Dawn was only 17."

"It would have been put in some sort of trust then," Nate pointed out.

"Exactly. It was under the care of Dawn's maternal aunt, Madeline Draco, until Dawn turned 21."

"What happened?"

Andrew looked back down at his glass, his voice husky with emotion when he spoke again. "Here."

He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it across the table to Nate.

Nate had to play trombone a little with it, getting older was a bitch. "_Dear Dad and Andrew….so sorry…can't handle all this responsibility…needed Mom…sorry…_ This is a suicide note. Your sister killed herself."

"No!"

The note of the fury in his voice and the sound of his hand hitting the table had Eliot almost out of his seat, but Nate waved him back down.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Ford, but my sister, Dawn, did NOT kill herself." Andrew rubbed his hands over his eyes. "Her aunt, that evil, evil witch, she wanted my sister's money. I know she did. Her husband owns Draco Security and he was getting close to bankruptcy at the time and with Dawn's death-" He choked on his words for a moment, struggling to keep from crying. "She got everything."

"Do you have any proof or anything to base your suspicions on?" Nate asked. He felt sorry for the kid, he knew what it was like to lose someone, but sometimes grief made villains of innocent people.

"Mr. Ford, please, I knew my sister." Andrew looked up and Nate realized that his eyes were the exact same color Sam's were when he was alive. "This is killing my father. Every day, he wonders if he could have saved her. He's all I have left. And my sister was a good person; kind, intelligent, funny as hell. She deserved better than this. Her memory deserves justice."

Nate did not usually take cases like this, where there was nothing to go on, but something about the young man made him want to believe that he was right, that a young woman had not just thrown her life away, that there was something he could do for a grieving parent.

"We'll do what we can." He promised.

"Thank you." Andrew stood and walked over to collect his aunts.

Nate waited for Sophie and the others to join him.

"I hate you," Sophie declared, giving him her best pout. "I'm glad you took the case." She gestured toward the closing door. "They caught me up on everything."

The other three slid into the side opposite Nate and Sophie.

"Oh, and the blue one-"

"Macy"

"Whatever." Sophie could not help but give Eliot a smile that made him highly apprehensive. "She told me to tell you-"

"Me?"

"You're the only 'long haired, good looking young man' in the bar."

"Shit." It was vaguely disturbing to be singled out by an emotional old woman in a bright blue, bedazzled track suit.

"She told me to tell you 'not all princes wear shining armor and not all princesses want a white horse.'"

"Shut up Hardison."

AN2: Rosamund was the name of the original Sleeping Beauty and Perrault the original author.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: This is a little something StaroftheDunedain and I are working on. What can I say? We were bored. Oh, and this is my chapter- don't hate me. I own nothing- JustWhelmed.

"OK, Hardison, what do ya have?" Nate asked, as he walked from the kitchen with two coffees, one of which belonged to Sophie.

"Well, this Draco chick sure knows how to keep a tight fortress. She's got all sorts of alarms including silent ones, security guards, and video surveillance. And that's just at the bakery." Hardison said, as he displayed his findings on the TV screens.

"I love silent alarms! They don't make those annoying siren sounds when they go off. Not that I set them off often." Parker said.

"What about at Draco's security facility?" Nate asked, giving a small smile at Parker.

"Pretty much the same thing, except that the security guards as ex-military guys jacked up on steroid juice, at least I'm assuming, and there are a lot of them." Hardison replied.

"A normal security place doesn't have that kind of detail to their building. There's something else in there." Eliot said.

"Yep. And we're going to figure out what that is. Eliot, looks you're going to be a security guard." Nate replied.

"Great." Eliot replied sarcastically.

"While you're inside, figure out what is being so heavily guarded. We can use that against the Dracos."

Thanks to Hardison, Eliot began working at Draco Security Incorporated, as a security guard named Philip Prince. Eliot did not like that his initials were P.P., but Parker thought it was hilarious.

Eliot, or rather, Philip, quickly adjusted to the security guard scene. All the other guards took to him like ducks to water. He was big, like most of them, and had a shady past he didn't talk about, also like most of them.

He was even invited to have a beer with a few of the guards after their shift.

Eliot wasn't going to be able to make it after he found out what it was that he and his fellow guards were exactly guarding.

As told by Nate, Eliot patrolled the two-story building for anything that stood out and was especially heavily guarded.

He found his answer on the second floor in a lonely corridor that only had one door-a door which was guarded by two of the biggest guards of the corporation.

Eliot had fought bigger.

"Hey guys!" Eliot decided to try the friendly approach first.

"What are you doing here?" The bigger of the two guards asked in a demanding voice.

"Oh, I'm new here and I was just checking this place out. It's pretty, big ain't it?" Eliot replied with a sly grin.

"Yeah. But no one but us is allowed in this hall, so go back from where you came from." The other guard said.

"Alright, no need to get hostile." Eliot replied with his smile still in place. "Hey, what's in there anyways?" Eliot asked.

"None of your business, now back off!" The bigger guard replied, giving a shove on Eliot's shoulder that didn't move him at all. Eliot dropped his smile.

The guard shouldn't have shoved him. With a glance at his shoulder where he had just been shoved, Eliot looked at the offending guard and, without another word, busted the guard right in the middle of his nose, then turned to the other guard, who reacted by lunging at Eliot.

Eliot caught the guard mid-swing and brought his knee to his attacker's ribs. Those were now broken. The other guard tried to come at Eliot while he was busy with the other one, but Eliot noticed him coming quick enough to side-step him and kick in the stomach, knocking the air out of him, and then punching him hard enough to knock him out.

The smaller guard tried to charge at Eliot, but he failed miserably when Eliot simply went to the side and elbowed the guard in the back. He then shoved the guard head-first into the wall, instantly knocking him out.

He did all of this within seconds. Not having to catch his breath, he quickly grabbed the key ring from the smaller guard's belt and went to the door.

When he opened the door, he was not expecting what he found.

Since he had his earpiece already in, Eliot spoke to his crew for the first time in a while.

"Nate?"

"Yeah, we're here."

"I figured out what they're guarding."

"And?"

"It's Dawn Culpepper."


	3. Chapter 3

AN: StaroftheDunedain here. Hi folks! My turn, huh. Well, I hope y'all like it. By the way…I think Eliot's tough expression is hot, but I have never had it directed toward me. That would probably be scary as heck.

It was a Tuesday. Not that it really mattered to Dawn; her days tended to run together. Wake up, take a shower, comb her long red hair before it curled, get dressed, eat whatever food they had put in the fridge this week… You get the picture.

On this particular Tuesday, however, Dawn was straying slightly from her routine. She had been battling a severe case of writer's block for about a week and, finally, in the wee hours of the morning she had been struck by inspiration.

So, this particular Tuesday found her hunched over her bed, wearing a pair of pajamas, a notebook on her lap while she frantically scrabbled down words. She had just gotten to the point where Snow White had been captured by territorial pygmies when she heard a strange thumping coming from outside.

Curious, she put down her notebook and got out of bed. The walls around her prison were thick, but if she put her ear right up against the door, she could hear what she thought were groaning. It sounded like a fight.

Everything went silent-then the unmistakable sound of the key in the lock. She let out an undignified squeak and scrambled across the small room.

The door was opened by a startlingly attractive man with long brown hair and nicely defined biceps. At least, he would have been attractive if not for the alarming, murderous expression on his face.

"Nate," he said to absolutely no one. "I figured out what they're guarding." Okay, so he was insane. "It's Dawn Culpepper." Great, he knew her name. Freaking fantastic.

Her author brain immediately jumped to _what would Snow White do?_ Well, Snow would pull out her gun. Dawn did not have a gun. She grabbed the lamp off of the table.

"What do you want? Who are you?" Dawn demanded to know.

The, still alarming, man looked around. She did not know the clues he was seeing—bolted down furniture, three small rooms, two small skylights out of reach, door that opened only from the outside—but his expression softened slightly.

"We be the Cavalry."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm here-" He stopped and cocked his head to the side like he was listening to something. "I don't have time to explain. Come with me. I'll take you somewhere safe."

"Why on Earth should I trust you?" Despite her protests, she lowered her makeshift club. "You were talking to yourself. You know who does that? Crazy people."

He chuckled and pulled what looked like a tiny hearing aid out of his left ear. "My team." He took a step toward her and she raised her weapon again. It did not seem to bother him much. "I know that you have no reason to trust anyone after what's happened to you. But we need to get out of here. Now, you can come with me willingly or I can disarm you and carry you over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. You pick."

Mixed in with her fear was a bit of resentment that he thought he could disarm her so quickly. Of course, he was a muscle-bound professional and she was an author in penguin pajama shorts and mismatched socks.

He made a sound that actually resembled a growl and took another step toward her. "Okay, I'm coming," she said quickly. "But I'm bringing my… (lamp) cudgel. Just in case you try anything."

"Fine." He grabbed her free, slightly sweaty hand in his strong, warm one and pulled her through the doorway.

It was the first time Dawn had left her cell in a long time, but it was hard to rejoice in the fact as she picked her way around the two, hopefully, unconscious men on the floor.

"Are they, did you just kill two people?"

"I don't think so."

"Well, that's reassuring," she mumbled. Just then, three men, Draco Security, came around the corner. Cowboy, that is what Dawn was calling him in her head since he had an accent that was vaguely Texasy, (so she was from Massachusetts, sue her) raised his fists in a protective stance.

Burly, Lanky, and Acne all smiled eerily similar, smug smiles. Then they charged. Cowboy pulled Acne in and gave him what was definitely a broken nose and possibly a concussion. Burly swung a punch that Cowboy easily intercepted.

Dawn saw something shiny coming out of Lanky's pocket. Without thinking, she gave a yell and swung her own weapon. Lanky 's face was one familiar to her. She had seen it every single Thursday when he brought her food and newspapers for the week, so there was a lot of festering anger behind her swing. She shattered her lamp on his head and knocked him out cold.

Cowboy, with Burly at his feet moaning, gave her an appreciative smile. "Nice job, kid." He took her hand again and pulled her into the elevator.

"You've just knocked out four men in about 15 minutes!" If she sounded a little hysterical, who would blame her? "Who does that?"

"Eliot Spencer, at your service."

A very loud alarm was blaring when they got to the basement, and they used the confusion to slip out a side door. There was a van waiting for them.

Inside it were two men and two women.

The oldest man, who had somewhat unfortunate hair, smiled at her reassuringly. "Hello, Dawn. My name is Nate Ford. We were hired by your brother. You're safe now."

As her prison got further and further away, she actually started to believe it.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

AN: My turn! Wasn't StaroftheDunedain's chapter great? Sorry if this one sucks. Also, sorry this took so long to come out. Life, man.

She couldn't believe it. She was finally out of that God forsaken room and was surrounded by her loving nannies and Andrew. They were all crying while hugging each other and exclaiming how much they had missed each other.

"I love when it there's happy endings." Hardison said to the crew they were sitting to the side, watching the scene before them.

"It's not over yet." Nate said. "This is only phase one."

"I know that man; I'm just saying- nevermind, what's next?"

"We make sure that the Culpeppers, especially Dawn, are safe while we go for the Dracos."

"Well Andrew and the Nannies will be fine, in a manner of speaking, but Dawn should stay low until we're done with this job." Eliot said.

"And how exactly does she do that?" Hardison asked.

"She stays with us. She will be our secret weapon against the Dracos." Nate replied with his signature smirk.

"No, Nate." Eliot said crossing his arms causing his muscles to tighten. "She needs to be somewhere safe. I saw how they held her; it wasn't exactly home away from home. They had her furniture bolted down."

"I understand that and what safer place for her than here, where they won't find her. Especially with you as her body guard," Nate said with a sly grin.

Eliot's face could not get any tenser. "Oh no, that's not happening! I'm not gonna be her baby sitter."

"Look, Eliot, you said it yourself; she needs to be somewhere safe. I can't think of any place safer than where you are. We need her here." Sophie spoke up, knowing that a woman's voice on the matter would help persuade Eliot.

"The second she starts to annoy me like these two over here," Eliot said, nodding towards Hardison and Parker, "She's someone else's problem."

"Then it's settled, Dawn will stay with us and we'll go steal a Dragon." Nate said.

Dawn was perfectly fine with hanging with the crew of thieves when they told her it would be best if she stayed with them. They had saved her from that prison, after all.

Sophie was more than glad to go shopping for her when she found out Dawn's sizes. Until she came back, however, Dawn was wearing one of Sophie's "simple yet comfortable black dresses" that she always had at the headquarters.

"I really can't wait for some jeans." Dawn said under her breath as she pulled on the hem of the shorter-than-she-was-used-to-dress.

Eliot had to fight to keep from smiling at her comment as he looked at her legs while she wasn't looking.

"So," Parker began as she bounced down beside Dawn on the couch. "Are you a princess?"

"What?" Dawn asked. "Um, no I'm not. Why do you ask?"

Parker shrugged before answering, "Because you were locked up just like those princesses in those movies we watched this weekend."

"Parker, those weren't real." Hardison jumped into the conversation. "Sorry, we watched all the Disney princess movies this weekend. Park had never seen them before."

"Oh, it's okay. Which one was your favorite, Parker?" Dawn asked her, glad to start a conversation. She was tired of how quiet it had become since her family and Nate and Sophie left.

"I liked Rapunzel."

"That must be a new one. I haven't seen anything new in quite a while." Dawn replied with a sad look that Eliot noticed.

"What's your favorite?" Parker asked breaking Dawn from her thoughts.

"Mine is Aurora, you know, Sleeping Beauty? I've always loved that fairy tale."

"What about you Eliot? Which is your favorite?" Hardison asked with a grin.

"I don't do fairy tales." Eliot said as he walked into the kitchen to make himself something to eat.

"What's his deal?" Dawn asked.

"He just takes time to warm up to you. Trust me, he may seem to be made of stone but really, the man's a big softie." Hardison replied.

"A big softie that can kick butt!" Parker said happily. Dawn just wanted to hug her.

Just as Dawn was going to continue conversation, Nate and Sophie returned.

"Here you go, Dawn, I hope you like what I picked out for you." Sophie said as she handed over four bags full of clothes.

"Thank you, I'm sure I will. I'll pay you back for all of this."

"Don't worry about that; it's a gift."

"Well, thanks again. I'll go try it all on."

As Dawn left to go change Eliot, who had returned when he heard the door opening, felt a pang of sadness that she was going to be getting out of the dress.

"Hardison, will you pull up all that we have on the Dracos?"

"Sure, what's up?" Hardison said as he went to pull up all the information.

"I know how we're going to steal the dragon." Nate replied smiling.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: Wasn't JustWhelmed's chapter awesome! Sorry about mine…

Dawn heard Nate's words and snorted while she pulled the dark blue blouse over her head. "_Steal a dragon?_ _Really? He sounds like one of my cheesier characters._" She smoothed down the silk. It was no faded Johnny Cash t-shirt, but it would do. She looked at the flats Sophie had also bought her, but decided against putting them on, instead padding out in her bare feet.

She sat next to Parker on the couch, realizing that she had taken a liking to the quirky, twiggy blonde. Maybe it was because she was a grown woman who had just seen her Disney classics.

Dawn looked up and realized that everyone was staring at her. She hoped she had not said that last bit about the Disney movies out loud. "Uhm…sorry. What?"

"I asked," Nate repeated, his voice reminding her of when she was four and caught about to write on the walls with a pink marker. She resisted the urge to fidget guiltily in her seat. "If there was more money somewhere? If that was why they were keeping you alive and relatively unharmed?"

"That doesn't make sense," Parker interrupted. "If they thought that there was more money, then they would have tortured her." She poked Dawn in the shoulder for emphasis.

"I spent a lot of time wondering about that too," Dawn said, making the room get quiet again. "I mean, I know that it could have been a lot worse. I spent the first two months wondering when they were coming in with thumbscrews."

Eliot, from his place near the couch, could not quite contain his snort. Thumbscrews were so archaic. But that brought on thoughts of what Dawn might have looked like when he found her, and it would certainly not have been in penguin pajamas with ink stains on her fingers. That was a surprisingly disturbing train of thought.

Almost as if she were reading his mind, although it was probably just the derisive snort, Dawn looked over at him with a brief, bright smile, apparently bearing him no ill-will for scaring her half to death and then threatening to treat her like a potato sack.

It was a very, very pretty smile.

"The only thing I can come up with," she continued, big green eyes only looking at Eliot, even though her body was twisted a little awkwardly in her seat, "Is that my uncle wouldn't let my aunt actually hurt me, because she would, that witch." (And as a fairy-tale adaptor, the term 'witch' was about the most vicious in her vocabulary).

"Your uncle?" Nate repeated. Dawn broke eye contact with Eliot, slight blush coloring her cheeks. "Fredrick Draco?"

"Yeah, he and Daddy grew up together, in Montgomery, Alabama. They were always good friends, but then Uncle Freddie got drafted for Vietnam. Daddy joined up too and ended up saving Uncle Freddie's life when Uncle Freddie took out a munitions truck. Got a Bronze Star out of it. They both did. When Dad married Mom, Uncle Freddie was best man and that's how he met Aunt Madeline. I always used to think that he was too good for her." Dawn took a deep breath, obviously trying to get her emotions under control. Eliot could tell that she had hero-worshiped her uncle before all of this and he felt sorry for the girl. "My only guess is that Uncle Freddie still feels like he owes my dad and **that's** why he won't let me get really hurt."

Eliot thought about the men with whom he had served, what they owed each other. "Makes sense."

"Thanks," she said, stopping for a dramatic pause, a mischievous smile tugging at the corners of her mouth that Eliot was the only one to notice. "Of course, there is a lot more money."

"No way," Hardison sputtered. "That's not possible. I have been over every inch of your family banking history. I found the account you grandma opened for her seventh birthday!"

"Have you ever heard the story of the Princess and the Pea?"

Everyone stared at her after that Parker-worthy non sequitur. "What?" Hardison asked, eyes comically wide in confusion.

"You know, the princess tries to sleep on a pile of seven mattresses, but can't because of the pea hidden on the bottom? Anyway, my mom bought seven mattresses from a wholesaler the same year she bought a lifetime storage unit."

She waited to see who would make the connection.

Eliot was a little surprised at himself for being the first to see her point. "She stuffed the mattresses with money."

The pleased smile he earned did funny things to his insides.

"Exactly. She also hid money in an abandoned well, like in Snow White, and in a statue of Hansel and Gretel at the main bakery. So far, it's about 6 million in total. And I'm pretty sure there are four more places at least."

"Seems a little extreme," Sophie mused.

"I LOVE IT!" Parker exclaimed, practically vibrating in her seat with excitement.

The blonde's joy was infectious and Dawn laughed along with her. "Mom always was very clever." Her smile dimmed somewhat and she began twisting the hem of her shirt. "She always tried to see the best in people, but I think she suspected that her sister was up to no good."

Eliot cleared his throat, wanting to see her smile and not sure why. "You still haven't told us the plan, Nate."

"Right, the plan." He clapped his hands together, a familiar zealous look in her eye. "We're going to let the Dracos know that we have Dawn."

All of the other thieves nodded, but Dawn was clueless.

"The Indian Chest or the Green Parrot?" Sophie asked.

"Neither!" Eliot snapped.

"The Indian Chest." Nate continued as if Eliot had not spoken. And, really, he was the only person who could get away with that.

"You're going to stuff me in a box?" Dawn asked, alarmed.

"No, Eliot is going to beat you up," Parker answered, in a tone that was a little too cheerful. Dawn edged away slightly.

"No, Eliot is not," Eliot said quickly, not liking the scared look on Dawn's face.

"What's the Green Parrot?" She glanced back at the Hitter, biting her lip nervously. Eliot actually felt a little hurt, but could not exactly blame her.

"You get eaten by a shark." Parker's tone got, if anything, more cheerful.

Dawn swallowed audibly. "I, uh, can we come up with a different plan?"

"Relax," Sophie said, reaching across the table to give Dawn a motherly pat on the hand. "The point is not to really hurt you, but to make your aunt and uncle _think_ you are hurt—set them at each other's throats.

"Age of the Geek, Baby," Hardison added. "I can make you look like Eliot's put your face through a meat grinder and ten minutes later you can join Sophie for tea."

"Oh, okay." Dawn actually turned and gave Eliot and apologetic smile. "Next time," she redirected her attention to Nate, "mention that sooner."

Nate started talking to Sophie, Parker, and Hardison about the more technical details of the scheme, so Dawn got up and walked over to where Eliot was standing. "So, uhm, thanks, for rescuing me."

"We aren't done yet," he said, trying not to be obvious as he looked her from the top of her messy red curls to her small, bare feet. Usually, he would not hide his interest, but a) she was a client and b) she had just gotten out of prison. Even Eliot knew that putting the moves on her would be inappropriate.

"I'm sorry that you have to babysit me."

Considering the round parts of her anatomy that he was currently eying appreciatively, he thought that maybe 'babysitting' was the wrong term to use. "Just doing my job, Dawn."

At that instant, her stomach rumbled. Her entire face turned pink. "Sorry."

He raised an eyebrow. "For being hungry?" She turned even pinker. He chuckled. "I'll fix you something to eat."

"You can cook?" The skepticism dripped from her tongue.

"You bet your cute little ass I can cook." He did not mean to say that aloud, but was intrigued by the lack of blush. If she was receptive, then that was a whole different ballpark.

Instead, she cocked her hip and licked her lips flirtatiously, voice taking on a slightly seductive edge. "Prove it."

His own voice dropped a little lower and he leaned a little more into her personal space, the moment taking on a strong sexual tension, his blood heating a little. "What do you want?"

"Waffles."

He laughed, and, just like that, the moment dissipated, although a heat still lingered in his belly. "I offer you anything and waffles are the best you can come up with?" He shook his head and started for the kitchen. "Waffles?"

"I like waffles," she protested, laughing following him into the kitchen.

Hardison nudged Parker, smiling at the overheard conversation. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That flying squirrels would be really hard to train?"

"What the? No, Eliot and Dawn…"

"Oh. No. What about them?"

"Never mind. Flying squirrels?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: Sorry this took so long, I fail at life, I know.

Those waffles were fantastic. More than fantastic, they were extraordinary. The fact that it's been a whole day and she is still thinking about the three and a half waffles that she ate should be enough to show how awesome Eliot's cooking is, especially to someone who has had sub-par food for so long.

Now, Dawn was sitting on the couch in the main room writing about how Snow White escaped the territorial pygmies thanks to seven dwarves, who were miners by day and band of thieves stealing for those less unfortunate-like Robin Hood. The funny thing is that the group she was now staying with also reminded her of Robin Hood and his gang.

Dawn couldn't help the dry laugh from escaping her throat. Her musings were cut short by Eliot's voice.

"Damn it Hardison! That's not happening!"

"What? What's wrong with it?" Hardison asked, following Eliot with a whip in his hand.

"Seriously, Hardison, I'm not gonna pretend to whip her!"

Dawn _really _wanted to know what they were talking about.

"Um, who do you not want to whip?" Dawn asked as innocently as she possibly could.

Eliot couldn't help but find that adorable. To compensate for that thought, he simply scowled more and glared towards Hardison.

"He wants to add footage of me whip, uh, striking you with a whip." Eliot replied to Dawn before turning to Hardison. "But that is _not _happening."

"Was not the fake beating you gave me enough?" Dawn asked, looking from the fine, brooding hitter to the lanky, whip-holding hacker.

"Oh, you were a natural at getting your ass kicked; I just thought a little pizazz was needed." Hardison said with a grin and jazz hands.

"Are you finished with the video? Could I see?" Dawn asked, trying to get the conversation away from whips and her.

"This is award-winning stuff right here, I mean, its gold." Hardison said as he pulled up the video.

He wasn't kidding. If she hadn't known that she pretended to get hit and that she had on make up for this video, Dawn would have been terrified of Eliot right now. He gave a great performance by giving his hardest punches and even a few down-right nasty kicks to her in the video when in reality he had just moved in front of a green screen. With Hardison's magic touch, Dawn looked like she was run over by a truck and that she was in some warehouse God-knows-where.

It hurt her just looking at the video. She also made a mental note to herself to never make Eliot that angry.

"So, do you go Incredible Hulk often?" Dawn asked Eliot with a smile that reached her eyes.

"Only when I have to," Eliot replied.

"Which is often, there's a reason why he's called the 'hitter.'" Hardison said as he was setting up an untraceable email that he would use to send the video of Dawn's beating to the Dracos.

"Why are you sending an email to Fredrick Castle?" Eliot said, his lips drawing into a straight line and his whole body tensing.

"Oh, Uncle Fred used his middle name for the security business. That was Aunt Madeline's idea. Castle is his real last name but they changed it to Draco for the business." Dawn explained, trying to figure out why Eliot had such a stern look on his face.

"Hardison, don't send that email." Eliot said as he moved beside him.

"Too late, man, I already have." He asked.

"Damn it, Hardison!" Eliot cried looking like he was ready to hit the hacker.

Dawn noticed he had that look a lot when he was talking with Hardison.

"What's wrong?" Dawn asked.

"I know your uncle." Eliot replied.

"You do?"

"Yeah, but I knew him as Fred Castle. He-we go way back and now a video of me beating up his niece is on its way to him."

"Maybe he won't realize it's you."

"I doubt that, you can see my face in the video."

Dawn wondered if his jaw could get any tighter. "Will him seeing your face ruin this whole thing?" she asked.

"No. It just makes an old friend an enemy now." Eliot replied.

"What are you talking about, Eliot?" Nate said as he came into the room.

Taking a deep breath, Eliot said, "We worked on a job together. It was a job getting this American out of a prison camp. We were almost out of bad territory before gunfire broke out on us. I got hit, and I wasn't about to move by myself. I told Castle to take the prisoner to safety and I would them off. He didn't want to leave but a job is a job, I made him leave after pointing out I would just slow us down and get us all killed. After telling him that I would figure something out, he took the prisoner to safe ground. He then came back for me."

"I remember hearing about you. Uncle Fred told me of the 'young man that never gave up even when he was down,' he really liked you."

"Yeah, and I liked him." Eliot replied.

"Eliot, I know this is hard for you but this will help us. We just added fuel to the fire." Nate said.

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked.

"This makes the situation even more personal, now it's all about revenge. Now we just need to wait for their move." Nate replied.

AN: Again, sorry this is so dang late. Don't hate StaroftheDunedain because she decided to let me co-write this story with her.


	7. Chapter 7

AN: StaroftheDunedain here, sorry this took so long. Finals and family vacation and birthdays and everything came up. All entirely my fault, JustWhelmed is still wonderful.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Dawn was left on her own for the next several hours while the thieves went over the outlines of a plan for another client. They did not kick her out exactly, but she felt uncomfortable listening to the problems of a stranger.

It still boggled her mind that Eliot was the man of whom her uncle spoke so warmly. She shied away, however, from thoughts of her uncle. It still hurt that he had let her be taken.

Instead, she explored her new surroundings. She stayed out of what looked like someone's bedroom-complete with a half-full whiskey bottle on the nightstand and some obsessive cleanliness.

However, she felt no compunction about investigating the spare bedroom, which appeared to be a storage container by the rest of the team. There was a collection of locks and safecracking tools. At least, Dawn thought they were safecracking tools; they could just as easily have been instruments of medieval torture. Either way, she figured they belonged to Parker. The bed was covered in whatever clothes would not fit into the walk-in closet. Had to be Sophie.

Bizarrely, there was a movie case in the largest bathroom, and, hey, what was up with all of the Doctor Who? She considered starting over with the first Doctor, but she decided on the Tenth, because, yummy, David Tennent. She peeked downstairs and saw that they were still in deep decision, so her Doctor Who plans would have to wait.

Her stomach grumbled, loudly. She tiptoed into the kitchen—clearly Eliot's domain—and stared blankly into the fully stocked fridge. She could cook, but Eliot was a little scary still underneath all of the hotness, and she did not want to piss him off. Dawn spied a carton of lo mien in the back, but then she wondered if it was maybe Parker's special lo mien or something and she did not want to piss off the blonde either.

Fortunately, Eliot noticed her wavering and made a face. "You'll get botulism if you eat that," he said gruffly. He left the group and rifled through the fridge. "Here." He handed her a plastic container. "It's a sandwich."

"Oh, sure, let her have a sandwich," Dawn heard Hardison say from the couch.

Eliot made a sound that was closer to a growl than anything else and Dawn felt her knees buckle a little and a blush start to creep up her cheek. Eliot gave her a knowing smile. Why did all of their moments happen around food?

"You can have anything you want," he said, tucking a stray curl behind her ear and letting his hand stroke over her cheek. She knew that no one would be able to blame her for her sudden loss of knowledge of how to breathe.

"Eliot," a very tense sounding Nate said from the main room.

"I'm gonna, just, uhm…" She turned a little pinker. "Thanks." She practically bolted from the room and made her way upstairs. Since the bed was covered with clothes, Dawn curled into the blessedly-free-of-clutter desk chair that was randomly pushed against the closet. The sandwich—pan-seared turkey with hickory smoked bacon, crisp lettuce, grilled onions, and what appeared to be homemade honey mayonnaise on toasted sourdough—probably qualified as gluttony all on its own.

Maybe it was the excitement of the past few days. Maybe it was the sheer relief of finally being completely safe. Maybe it was the tryptophan in the turkey, but as soon as Dawn put the container on the floor she was sound asleep.

Eliot came in a few hours later and found her face plastered against the squishy arm of the chair, one leg dangling off the seat, and her arms wedged together against her chest. He felt his lips curl into a fond smile, but then he shook himself out of it.

Sure, he had saved her. Sure, he felt responsible for her. Sure she was pretty, with her mass of coppery curls and her green eyes. Sure she was smart and kinda funny and admirably brave, what with challenging a dangerous man while armed with only a desk lamp. Sure, she was quirky, what with challenging a dangerous man while armed with only a desk lamp. None of that meant he had to go and get fond of her. That would end badly for everyone.

Still, she was going to wake up with a sore neck sleeping like that and it was his job to protect her. He reached out and poked her shoulder. "Come on, princess, wake-up."

"Mmph."

He reached down and picked up the plastic container. "Too good for my turkey sandwich then? So boring it put you to sleep?"

She was up so fast, she almost broke his nose. "What? No!" Her curls were crazy and all around her face as she blinked wide, bleary eyes up at him. "I don't think your sandwich was boring. Or you, I just—" She finally noticed his smile. "That's just mean." She crossed her and flopped back in the chair. "I'm not a morning person."

"It's not morning."

"Well, I'm not what-ever-time-this-is person either," she huffed.

Eliot just smirked. "There's another bedroom downstairs."

"Now I'm not sleepy," she replied, half-jokingly.

Eliot was almost out of the room so he called over his shoulder, "Grab a book!"

He had no sooner made it downstairs, when Dawn darted past him clutching several dvd cases. "Better than books," she said (he waited for her, as an author, to pick up on the irony of that statement, but she did not appear to). "Doctor Who marathon!"

"No." Eliot knew one thing, and one thing only, about Doctor Who. "That's one of Hardison's geek shows."

"It's beloved by half the world," she defended.

He snorted. "The Geek half."

"It's got aliens! Time traveling aliens! And they put Hitler in a cupboard!" She scanned the backs of the cases and critically selected a particular disk, which she inserted into the drive. "If the weeping angels freak you out, even a little, you have to give the show a try. If not, I'll put the whole thing away and never mention it again. Deal?"

Her hand was small and soft, but her grip was respectable. "Deal."

Eliot was saved from having to admit anything because Nate came in just as the credits were rolling.

Which was a good thing too, because those angels were freaky as hell.

AN2/Disclaimer2 : I also do not own Doctor Who… And, yes, I felt the need to indulge my innergeekness in this chapter.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the idea of this story, which was all StaroftheDunedain's doing, because she's epic.

AN: I'm horrible for letting this be so late. I know. Don't hate me.

"Eliot. We got a problem." Nate said walking up to him.

Eliot really hated problems, especially during a job.

"What?" Eliot asked, almost growling.

"Fredrick Castle wants to meet with you." Nate replied simply. He knows how Eliot hates people beating around the bush.

"Dammit, I was afraid of that."

"Yeah, well, you're going to meet with him."

"What?" Eliot and Dawn said together.

Nate had to almost hold in a laugh. "You will meet with Fredrick and tell him the situation. Make it personal."

Eliot hated this. He hated seeing one of his old friends hurt. He hated being the one to hurt him. And, right now, he hated Hardison for making such a convincing video.

The meeting between Eliot and Fredrick was to take place in one of Frederick's empty storehouses. Eliot came early to scope out the place. With Nate in his ear, he waited for Fredrick to show. He remembered how Frederick took care of his people before, and he knew that you never wanted to be on his bad side.

Eliot was on now on Fredrick's bad side. He knew that the second Fredrick's fist connected with his face.

Before Fredrick could get another punch in, Eliot caught his wrist. "Hold on a second! Let me explain first before you kick my ass!" Eliot said.

"You hurt my niece!" Fredrick said, backing up just barely. "And all this time I thought she was dead."

"No! That wasn't real, none of it. She's perfectly fine. She's catching up on Dr. Who right now as we speak."

"What do you mean? When can I talk to her? See her in person?"

"I don't know, Fred. It may be a while. Look, I was just supposed to come here and tell you that 'unless you meet our demands, we will kill her' and believe me, the people I work for will go through with it if you don't come through." Eliot replied. This was a lot harder than he thought it would be.

"How did you get involved in this?"

"I owed someone a favor."

Fred shook his head, "You've always been decent, deep down, Eliot. I don't understand. A hitter, sure, but not innocent girls."

"That's why the video was fake." He explained. "I could get in a lot of trouble."

"You still do that, huh? Helping people out no matter what?"

Eliot shrugged. "I try."

"_Alright Eliot, start getting him on the track of Draco, let him pull the answer out of you."_ Nate said through the earpiece.

"Look, Fred, this whole job is to get something out of you. I wasn't supposed to tell you that the video was fake, but the second that I found out Dawn was your niece I knew something wasn't right. I'm going to help you get her back safely; it will take some time though. This lady I'm working for owns a security company so she watches everything like a hawk-"

"What's her name?" Fredrick asked.

"I can't tell you that."

"What can you tell me?"

"That we're on her property. Why she would have us meet where she works is beyond me and I tried to explain how stupid that was but she wouldn't listen."

"_Perfect. Now give him time to put it all together."_ Nate said in Eliot's ear.

Eliot watched Fred while he took in all the information. He knew how smart Fred was and how it won't take long before he figures out the truth.

"Is her name Madeline Draco?" Fred said with a bit of menace in his voice.

"Yeah, do you know her?" Eliot asked, trying to sound as innocent as he could.

"Eliot, I'm married to her. Did you help her fake Dawn's death?" Fred asked. Eliot almost smiled; he knew Fred would figure it all out.

"No, that was before me. I'm just the retrieval guy. I'm sorry, man. But look, you need to play along if you want to see Dawn again," Eliot said.

"What do I do?" Fredrick asked.

"You go along with this, for now. I know a guy who can get inside and help us out but we'll have to meet up with him. That's why I agreed to come here, to help out and that's just what I'm going to do."

Fredrick's shoulders dropped and his stance lightened up, the stress easing away. "Okay. Okay. I'll do whatever I need to do. Which is what, exactly?"

"Right now, just keep doing what you've been doing. I'll contact you with the time and place to meet again."

"Alright. Thank you. And, sorry about the punch earlier."

Eliot did smile this time. "No problem. You still got it."

Fredrick smiled, too, faintly. "I try."

Just as Fredrick turned to leave, Eliot spoke. "Fred, she's safe. I promise you that. And, as long as I'm around, she will stay safe."

Fredrick let out a deep breath. "I know, Eliot, I know."

As the two men were having their meeting, Nate and the crew were sitting back at the apartment listening to the meeting take place. Also listening was Dawn.

Since being freed from her homely prison, Dawn had felt relieved. It wasn't until she heard Eliot's promise and Fredrick's faithful answer that she began to actually feel safe.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: StaroftheDunedain here. JustWhelmed is awesome and I need to live up to her chaps.

Disclaimer: I sort of co-own Dawn but not any of the real Leverage people sadly

Sophie's part in the unfurling drama was just beginning. She waited on a plum plush chair outside Madeline's office. The secretary, a dark-haired girl with a gold nametag reading "Raven" picked up the phone. "Yes, ma'am." She turned sharp, intelligent black eyes in Sophie's direction. "You can go in, Ms."

"Thank you." Sophie deepened her natural accent until it was almost a cockney drawl. She opened the door of the dragon's inner sanctum.

It was a dark room, with a high, arched ceiling, a single paneled window, and black leather furniture. The desk was made of ebony. The bookshelves were dark and shone like a mirror. The only picture on the wall was of a moonscape. The few other decorations were made of dark glass. The room's sole bright spot was a brilliantly colored parrot, which made no noise. Instead, it looked at Sophie with an almost critical eye—giving Sophie the goose bumps.

In contrast to her office, Madeline Draco was a pale woman with fair skin, white-blonde hair, pale, cold, gray eyes, and a thin, mean mouth. "How can I help you, Ms. Connors?" she asked in a breathy voice.

Sophie, or Adelaide Connors as she was calling herself, smiled and sank into the chair opposite the desk. It was set so that she was at a definite height disadvantage. It was meant to put her ill at-ease, so she made sure to shift uncomfortably.

"It just so happens, Ms. Draco, that you are in a position to help me," Sophie corrected, keeping her face blank.

"How so?"

"I seem to have come into possession of something which belongs to you." She pulled a jump drive out of her purse. It had only one file on it.

While Madeline watched her niece being beaten, Sophie watched her. Aside from a slight tightening of the muscles around her mouth, Madeline gave no sign that she was watching anything more disturbing than an unfavorable weather report—certainly not her niece being savagely beaten to a bloody pulp.

"You appear to have been very thorough," Madeline said when the clip ended. "Did you get the location of the money yet?"

"Not yet, but we will." Sophie, or rather, Adelaide, smirked. "As you said…we are thorough."

Madeline nodded, once. "I'm still not sure why you're here Ms. Connors."

"Once we get the locations, it will take some time, effort, and money of our own to break into whatever stronghold your late sister was using and steal it," Sophie explained. "Whereas you, as the legal heir to most of your sister's assets could just…walk in and take it."

"True."

"We are prepared to pay 25% of the recovered funds for that expediency."

"Why should I accept only 25% of my own money?" Her voice was controlled, cold, but there was a violence underneath it that made the hair rise on the back of Sophie's neck.

"Because we have the key. Your options are 25% or nothing." Sophie crossed her legs and widened her smirk just a tad. "I know which I would choose."

Madeline pressed her lips into a tense, thin line. "Your methods do seem more effective." In a sudden fit of temper, she knocked a vase off her desk. It shattered into a million pieces. Her face lit up with the insanity boiling just under the surface. Then she took a deep breath and smoothed her hair back from her face. "Perhaps it's for the best really."

The shift had shaken Sophie, but the grifter was professional enough to hide it. She raised one inquisitive eyebrow. "How so?"

"I had to be so careful." There was no humor in the smile. "My husband, you see, is very fond of the girl. I had her secure, but still…there was always a risk he would find her. You'll appreciate this," She stood and walked over to the bookcase, where there was a crystal bottle filled with amber liquid and a few glasses. She poured herself one and sipped it appreciatively. "I had a forger draw up some papers—to all intents and purposes, poor Dawn was diagnosed with schizophrenia and asked her beloved aunt to keep her somewhere while she underwent treatments. If she'd been hurt, the game would have been over." Madeline swirled the brandy in contemplation. "But you can kill the little bitch and no one cares."

"That can be arranged," Sophie replied with a smile so cool she gave herself a chill. She stood and shook Madeline's hand.

The Dragon's skin was cold.

Sophie pulled out of the company parking lot, not noticing the dark blue Taurus following her.

Back at O'Malley's, Fredrick Draco was sitting awkwardly at a booth next to Eliot and across from Nate. "Tell me what's going on!" he demanded.

Nate looked at Eliot, who nodded slightly. "Truth is…we're thieves."

"Figured that out for myself."

"But we're not the bad guys."

"Come again?"

"Your nephew, Andrew, he didn't believe that Dawn killed herself; he thought…he thought your wife did it."

Fredrick shook his head. "I've had my own doubts about Dawn's suicide, but my wife didn't kill her. If your video is anything to go by, no one did." He shook his head. "She must have run away or something."

"No," Nate said quietly. "No, she didn't. And you don't really believe that either. Your wife locked her up."

"She did worse than that," Sophie said, sliding in next to Nate.

"What do you mean?" Nate, Eliot, and Fredrick asked in unison.

Sophie related the particulars of her meeting with Madeline to everyone listening, including Dawn with the earpiece Hardison had given her before he left to restock on orange soda and gummy frogs.

When she finished, Eliot's hands were clenched and Fredrick looked shaken. "Wh-?" He cleared his throat and tried again. "Why should I believe you?"

"Because your niece says that you should." Nate took out his earpiece and handed it over.

"Dawn?" Fredrick asked hesitantly, too softly for a man of his boldness. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah," she said with tears in her voice. "I'm here Uncle Freddie."

Fredrick closed his eyes as he fought back his own tears. "Is it all true?"

"I'm so sorry, but yes. It's all true."

The tears disappeared, replaced by a hard, dangerous look. "What do you need me to do?"

Nate reclaimed the earbud and leant across the table. "Your wife has the evidence somewhere as a fall-back. Find it and we can take her down."

Fredrick nodded. He punched Eliot lightly in the shoulder. "You owe me a drink, boy, for the scare you put me through with that video."

"Yes, Sir."

Fredrick had only been gone a few minutes when they heard the crash over the ear piece.

"Dawn? You okay?" Eliot growled.

"Uhm…no." There was another crash. "Oh shit! Eliot!"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Again, I, JustWhelmed, own nothing. The idea of this story was StaroftheDunedain's and Leverage is not mine, either.

Dawn had missed hearing her uncle's voice, so when the second Nate handed him the earpiece and she was able to talk to him, it was hard not to weep with joy. She contained her emotions to only tearing up a little. She had Parker with her, due to the fact that her Hacker boyfriend was out grocery shopping and Dawn didn't want to freak her out with her blubbering.

When her uncle left, Dawn needed to do something to distract herself. Cooking always helped.

The two women were in the kitchen where Dawn was preparing to make pancakes. She still had the frying pan in her hand when she saw three figures move in the corner of her vision and heard Parker gasp. Dawn turned to see three rather large men standing in the entrance of the kitchen.

"We came for Ms. Connors, but I'm sure that Mrs. Draco will be pleased to see her kidnapped niece once again." The man in the front said. He looked to be the leader even though he was the smallest. The man close to Parker was a little bit bigger. However, it was the man in the back that Dawn was worried about.

He looked like he could take on the Hulk. Before Dawn could register anything, Parker whipped out her taser from her back pocket, causing the three men to look at her and momentarily forget about Dawn. Taking this opportunity, she took the frying pan she had and whacked the leader upside the head with it. He fell onto the counter, causing all the mixing bowls and utensils to fall with him to the floor with a loud echoing crash.

Eliot's voice came immediately over the earpiece, he didn't sound happy. "Dawn? You okay?"

"Umm…no." Dawn replied just before Parker tased the man beside her. He fell down right beside the leader, amongst the mixing bowls. That left the gigantor. "Oh shit. Eliot!"

Dawn felt slightly comforted when she heard the feral growl come from Eliot, but that quickly faded when she saw the large man start to make his way towards her. Her heart leapt to her throat when Parker came out of nowhere, taser in hand.

The man simply took her rather small wrist in his hand and grabbed the taser from her. "I don't want you." He said with a smirk before he turned the taser on her. He used it on her longer than he should have, and Dawn didn't like that.

She didn't like that one bit. "You son of a bitch!" She exclaimed before she charged at him.

Now, Dawn was less willowy than Parker, but not much. And that was apparent when she punched the giant with all her might and his head hardly moved. The giant's smirk grew.

"My turn," he said as he slapped Dawn. He hit her so hard she barely caught herself before she crashed into the counter. Not enough to stop her from hitting the side of her head, though.

As she felt dizziness wave through her, she saw the giant loom over her. He began to reach for her but was stopped short by two strong arms coming around his neck.

The giant was startled but not for long. He reached for Eliot but could not touch him, so he turned toward the counter where he crashed backwards into the cabinets and counter. Eliot gave out a grunt before he tightened his grip on the giant's windpipe. The giant reached again for Eliot, this time by clawing at his arms around his neck. He couldn't budge the arms so he crashed into the refrigerator, causing another grunt out of Eliot.

Eliot looked down, seeing both Parker passed out and Dawn holding her head while looking dazed at the fight taking place. Amongst her dazed look he saw one of utmost fear. That pissed him off more than anything.

Tightening his arm around the giant's head even more, he took his other arm and put it on the top of the giant's head, holding him steady while he tried to thrash about. The giant crashed them into the refrigerator one more time before he began to feel his knees go weak.

Eliot tightened his arms once more as the giant fell to his knees, trying desperately to get Eliot off of him. Only a few more seconds passed before the giant fell flat on his face- knocked out cold.

Breathing heavily, Eliot pushed the man away then turned to Dawn, who was right beside the giant's head. She was staring at the giant with the same look of fear and dazedness as before.

"Dawn?" Eliot asked in a ruff but gentle voice. "Dawn, look at me."

He had to move towards her and put his hand to her chin to get her attention. "Dawn, darlin', look at me. Are you alright?" Eliot asked in his southern drawl. Did he really just say "Darlin'?"

When Dawn's eyes met Eliot's and saw the concern and something else she couldn't quite describe, she came out of her stupor. "They just showed up. We didn't hear them until it was too late. Park- oh! Parker! Is she okay? She got tased!" Dawn exclaimed looking from Eliot to Parker who was still lying in the floor. Eliot followed her gaze and took her hand.

"Keep your hand on that," he said as he moved her hands towards the gash that was on the side of Dawn's head, starting near her hairline and ending right before her eyebrow.

"She's fine. But I think that was the first time she got hit by her own taser." Eliot said as he finished checking her pulse. Getting up, he grabbed a dishtowel from the counter and handed it to Dawn. "Here, put this to your head."

Thirty minutes later Dawn and Eliot were sitting on the couch where Eliot was helping Dawn with the gash on her head. Eliot and Nate had already taken the three men -the giant took help from Hardison and Sophie- to the alley where they left them for the police, whom they called anonymously, to pick them up.

When Hardison got back from his trip to the store and saw Parker passed out on the couch, he went into a rambling frenzy before Eliot said, "Dammit Hardison, she's fine! Just take her upstairs to the spare room."

After they finally got the giant in the alley and the call made, Hardison went to stay with Parker while Nate and Sophie went to get take out for dinner. No one felt like going in the kitchen right now.

"So, a frying pan, huh?" Eliot said as he lightly cleaned dry blood from the gash on Dawn's head.

"Yeah, it was the only thing I had near me and I sort of panicked. I figured it was better than a lamp." Dawn replied with a smile.

Eliot chuckled. "A lot better."

A comfortable silence fell between the two before Eliot spoke again. "Did you recognize any of those men that were here?"

"Yeah, they all work for auntie dearest. Did you, you know, do away with them?" Dawn asked.

Eliot smiled, put a small bandage on her head, and said, "It's nothing to worry about now."

Dawn looked uncertainly at him but before she could speak, the rest of the gang came in.

"Draco must be feeling the pressure if she sent her own employees to take care of Sophie." Nate said as he walked over to an armchair.

"Nate, that's not it. Draco sent those guys to clean up a loose end. If those men got back to her with any bit of news about her," Eliot pointed to Dawn, "there would be more men pounding on our door. She's not safe here. She needs to be in some kind of safe house where we can really watch her."

"You're right. That's what I was thinking, and that is why she is going to stay with you." Nate replied.

"That's not what I meant!" Eliot said in a growl.

"You said it yourself that she needs to be in a safe house. From what I've seen, that's wherever you are." Nate said.

"I really don't need to be babysat. I'll be fine. Just let me keep a frying pan handy and I'm good." Dawn said, trying to lighten the mood,

"No, Nate's right. You need somewhere and safe and if you're with me, I won't let anyone get to you." Eliot said, looking at her at a side glance.

Dawn had to hide the blush she felt rising to her cheeks. Why did that comment make her heart hammer and her stomach do a flip?

"Then it's settled. Dawn will go home with Eliot while we figure out our next step." Nate said with his usual Cheshire-cat grin.

Across town, Madeline Draco was just about to leave her office for the night when her husband, holding his laptop, suddenly came in.

"Oh, Fredrick, I thought you went home." Madeline said as she gave him a fake smile.

"Just about to head out but first I wanted to talk about this email I got." Fred said as he put his laptop in front of her.

"What was it about?" She asked.

"It was a video. Of Dawn. She was very much alive and, at the time, being beat up."

"Dawn is alive?!" Madeline said with convincing shock. "And she's hurt? What else came in the email?"

"Just asked me if I really knew what my wife was up to. What did it mean, Maddie?"

"You know I hate that name. I don't know what that means. This is all just as surprising to me as it is to you. But don't worry; I'll have our men figure this out for us. Have you gone to the police about this?"

"Not yet, I wanted to show you first. Why?"

"Just let me take care of everything, darling. You go home and try not to worry about this; it'll all be alright, I promise."

Fred left Madeline's office feeling like he had just fallen into a frozen lake. Her snake-like smile didn't help. He felt awful for the fact that he never realized that his wife was really a witch and that it was his fault that Dawn was hurt by her. As he started his car, he made a silent promise that he would make it up to his niece. And get a divorce.


	11. Chapter 11

AN: StaroftheDunedain here *hides behind JustWhelmed* Yeah…sorry….school.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I sort of coown Dawn, but that's it. No one else.

And that was how Dawn found herself riding shot-gun in Eliot's very sexy pick-up, two borrowed suitcases strapped to the bed. Out of habit, she slid out of her shoes, but one glance at Eliot's tense jaw line and she resisted from putting her feet up on the dashboard.

It was a quiet, tense ride. Dawn was a little hurt that Eliot was so opposed to spending time with her. Protecting people was his job, right? Was she so awful that routine became a pain in the ass? He did not seem to mind flirting with her in the kitchen.

Eliot, on the other hand, was pissed at himself. He had not known the girl that long, but he felt a strange connection. He did not like it, and was worried that it would screw with his objectivity.

He pulled into the garage of his apartment building and grabbed her suitcases, all without saying a word. She followed him up the penthouse apartment; which was surprisingly homey, with lots of windows and a curious mishmash of practice equipment and decorations.

"You have furniture!" she blurted out. He gave her a weird look and led her into the bedroom. The king-sized bed was made of dark wood and matched the dresser. The mattress was bare, but after he dropped her bags, he reached into a linen closet and pulled out a set of high-thread-count, dark green sheets. She stepped forward to help, but he glared at her and proceeded to make the bed with military crispness.

Again, before her brain could catch up to her mouth (possibly because she was enjoying watching him work) she blurted out "And Ansell Adams photographs!"

"Well what were you expecting?" he asked, exasperated.

"A bunker," she answered truthfully. "And maybe that Chinese Qiang out there." (He raised his eyebrows at her knowledge) "But definitely a bunker. Maybe a basement or something."

"You've got a wild imagination, kid," he chuckled.

"I'm not a kid," Dawn protested, sounding like a child to her own ears.

_Oh, I know,_ he thought to himself. "If you want to put your stuff in the bottom two drawers, they're mostly empty. I'm gonna go see what we have to eat."

He could hear her bustling around from the kitchen, where he was checking the contents of the fridge. He dumped some fuzzy vegetables into the sealed bin for compost, one corner of his mouth lifting when he heard her pad in barefoot. "We're-I'm out of produce." He got his keys out of the crystal dish on the windowsill. "There's a stand a couple of blocks away with good tomatoes. I know the owner."

"Okay, uhm, I'll put my shoes back on."

"Don't worry about it." He misinterpreted her reaction as that of fear. "Look, Dawn, nobody's getting in here; Hardison created my alarm system himself and Parker tested it. Plus, I've got my com in. You're safe here." He put his hand on her shoulder for a moment, soft curls brushing his skin. "I promise." With that, he was out the door.

"Perfectly safe from everything except going mad," she mumbled, putting her hand against the pane of glass, feeling the heat soak through her fingertips.

She sighed, and decided to explore a little in an attempt to contain her restless energy. Unfortunately, Eliot's apartment did not have anything hidden to explore. It was a very open floor plan: kitchen/dining area, with black marble countertops, that was separated from the living room by two broad steps. A door from the living room led off to the master (only) bedroom and bath.

The living room contained a big screen TV, a couch/end table, a recliner, a couple of punching bags and some swords in a stand that looked as if they were used frequently, and a large, carved wooden cabinet, which was locked when Dawn tried it. The kitchen held nothing but cookery items. She did not understand his spice organization, but suspected that it was by country of origin.

His bathroom was almost as large as his dining room, the reason for which became evident when she discovered a frightening array of medical equipment.

She flopped onto the bed with a groan. She glanced around the room and saw nothing but a dresser and another locked wooden cabinet. Her feet hung off the edge, and she smiled as a thought occurred to her. _Don't all men keep weird things under the bed? _Her smile widened when she pulled a cardboard box from under the mattress. She slid ungracefully to the floor. "What are you hiding, Mr. Eliot Spencer?"

Eliot shut his door and called out. "I hope you like heirloom tomatoes because…" He heard what sounded like a woman crying. Immediately, he thought the worst. "Dawn?!" His heart rate sped up and he dropped his sack of produce, tomatoes squashed under the sole of his boot unheeded. "Dawn?!" He skidded to a halt just inside his bedroom and stared.

She had opened the box of photographs under his bed. He would have been pissed, except for the fact that she was curled around one crying.

"Hey." He sat next to her and, gently, pulled her hands down away from her face. "You alright?" He glanced down at the picture in her lap and saw a very young version of himself-one arm wrapped around his uncle and the other around the middle of a new beagle puppy.

"Yeah," she answered, sniffing, red hair obscuring her face.

He held both of her small hands in one of his and used the other to brush back her curls and clear his view. "You sure about that, darlin'?"

She shook her head. "I-I haven't asked about him. My dad. I saw you with yours and I just…" She trailed off and it took him a moment to realize that she had confused his uncle with his father. How was she to know that he had no happy memories with his dad? "I know how everyone else is doing," she continued, "but when no one told me I, I was…afraid to ask. You must think I'm the worst kind of coward."

He chuckled darkly. "I'd be a hypocrite if I condemned you for avoiding the emotional stuff."

She smiled a little, green eyes searching blue ones. "Do you know?"

He wished he did not. He wished he could lie to her. Instead, he stroked her cheek with a sudden upwelling of tenderness. "He's…at home. Your brother hired someone to look after him, full time. It's, he's not, he thinks his daughter killed herself, Dawn. That's not something you just recover from."

She stared at him uncomprehendingly for a long moment, before letting out a sound like a strangled cat and running from the room. Her shoes were still by the bed, so he thought to give her a moment alone. Until he heard the door shut.

"Shit."

By the time he caught up to her, she was outside the building, leaning against a light pole. She was not crying, but looked close to it.

"Don't ever do that again!" He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "You can't run away from me, Dawn!"

"I'm sorry," she said in a quiet, strained voice.

He took a deep breath and softened his own tone. "Come on back inside."

"I can't." She looked down at the ground, at the lines her bare toe was drawing on the sidewalk. "I'm probably being stupid…but I've been stuck inside for years. I-I miss sunlight."

"You're not being stupid," he assured her. "I know what that's like. Why do you think my apartment has so many windows?"

Eliot still was not sure how they went from commiserating about time in captivity to him holding her shoes while she climbed an oak in the local park.

"What are you doing?" he growled up at her.

"Climbing a tree," she replied matter-of-factly. "What does it look like?"

"Get down from there before you break your neck."

"Come and get me," she challenged, settling on a branch fairly high up the trunk.

He grinned and started to scale.

"Shit," she squeaked. "You weren't supposed to be able to do it!" She scooted a little further down her branch.

He chuckled from the branch right below hers. "Most of the time, a tree top is the perfect position to be as a sniper."

"Oh I should not find that hot," she mumbled, turning pink when she realized that she had spoken aloud.

Eliot was grinning when he sat next to her. "You think I'm hot?" he teased.

She replied with a _well duh_ expression, before she softened. "I wanted to thank you."

He shrugged. "Just doing my job, Dawn."

"Is this part of your job?" She gestured around at the park scene. "Is taking me into your home part of your job?"

"No, that's a new one."

"Then thank you." She looked down at the ground from between her toes, biting her lower lip. "When all of this is over, what's going to happen?"

He did not want to think about that. He did not want to think about why he did not want to think about that. "You'll get your life back," he said finally.

"Will I ever see you again?" Her hand, of its own volition, crept across the branch to rest on his. "Eliot?"

He looked down at their hands, and, taking a deep breath, tangled their fingers together. It looked…it made his chest hurt. "If you want to." He saw her nibbling on her bottom lip again and smiled. He put his thumb over it to stop her before she started to bleed. He was shocked a little at the softness, at the kiss she pressed to the pad.

He growled her name, pulling her in for a kiss. When their lips were mere millimeters apart, Nate cleared his throat in their ears. "Fredrick Draco is here. Thought you might care."

Dawn pulled back a little, smiling wryly. "And….the spell is broken."

"Speak for yourself," he grumbled. "I, at least, plan on finishing this later."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Disclaimer: The idea of the story goes to StaroftheDunedain and Leverage goes to TNT. Deep sigh. Sorry this so late. I fail at life.

Hardison was enjoying his little nap on the couch when he felt a light poke on his shoulder.

"Hardison?" Parker said as she poked him once more.

When Hardison didn't get up fast enough to please her, she did the next best thing she could think of- she kissed him.

Hardison eyes fluttered open just as Parker pulled away. "Now that's a way to wake up. What's up, babe?" He asked as he smiled at her.

"I have a question, no, nevermind, it's stupid." Parker said as she began to move away.

He cupped her cheek, causing her to look back at him. "Hey, what did I tell you about that? Nothing you ask me is stupid. What's on your mind, babe?"

"I was just wondering…what fairy tale are we?"

Hardison's heart began beating overtime, not only from the sincerity of the question but from the look that she was giving him. He loved it when she gave him that look- the look of pure questioning and wonder.

He realized he hadn't given her an answer yet. "Ah, well, we're ah, um, Rapunzel?"

"Rapunzel?"

"Yeah, I mean, yeah you like to fall and climb towers and I get you to come down?" Hardison replied, hoping that was good enough for her.

Parker smiled, threw her arms around him, and kissed him. "Good."

Hardison was quite happy with his girlfriend's reaction and was planning to get another kiss out of her but then Nate, Sophie, and Frederick walked in to the sitting area. They were all about to sit down when the door was thrown open and Dawn came running in.

"Uncle Freddie!" Dawn called as she launched herself into his already open arms.

"Dawn, my God it's really you." Fred said as he encased Dawn in a strong hug.

The sight warmed everyone's hearts, including the hitter's. It was as if the favorite uncle was visiting during Christmastime, not a dead niece being returned to a heartbroken uncle.

"Dawn, I swear I didn't know-" Fred began but was stopped by Dawn.

"It's okay, Uncle Freddie, I got the low down. And I knew you could never do that to me." She said, giving him a reassuring smile.

Fred cupped her cheek with his right hand while he gently squeezed her shoulder with his left. "We have a lot of catching up to do. The whole family does."

"Yeah, we do."

"So, Eliot, have you been taking care of my niece?" Fred asked, turning to the hitter who was now leaning on the wall watching the mini family reunion take place.

"You know I have, Fred." Eliot replied.

"That I do, thank you. I know this isn't really your cup of tea."

"It is now."

"Not that I'm overly ecstatic to have you here but… why are you here?" Dawn asked.

Fred turned back to Dawn and replied, "You know how Madeline threatened that she had evidence against you?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I got it. And it was almost too easy."

"How did you get it?"

"I broke into her office, and I looked around for what seemed like forever until I found everything in the middle drawer. The weird thing is that I could have sworn that I had already checked the drawer before and found nothing. It just, appeared."

"Well, that does sound odd but hey, I'll take it. Now what do we do? Are we done?" Dawn asked.

"Almost, but I have something for you to do." Nate said stepping up to them. "And I think you'll like it. Eliot won't though."

Nate was right, Eliot did not like that he was escorting Dawn back to where she had been captive, with the evidence which the evil aunt had forged against Dawn. He didn't like it one bit.

Dawn could tell that he didn't like it, too. But she really liked Nate's idea of going back and getting a confession out of Madeline.

"Eliot?" Dawn asked quietly as they were cautiously walking in an empty hallway.

His response was a grunt.

"Look, I know that you don't want me here but I need to do this and hear it from her myself. I need to show her that she couldn't get the best of me and my family." Dawn said.

Eliot stopped and turned to her. "I get that. It's just that-"

"That?"

"That I don't like having to worry about you all the time. I just want you to be safe and away from a woman who seems to have some vendetta against you."

"Aw, you're just a big teddy bear!" Dawn said, trying to lighten the mood.

Eliot just quirked his eyebrow up and was about to say something before he heard the sound of footsteps. Running footsteps. Boots from what it sounded like. Boots that the security wear around this establishment.

"Dawn, get in that room," Eliot said nodding to the door to his left as he cracked his knuckles, "Wait for me to come and get you."

"Why? What's wrong?" Dawn asked.

She was answered by the sound of the now approaching footsteps and by seeing five guards running towards them.

"Go now!" Eliot called as he braced himself.

As Eliot began his assault on two of the guards, kicking one in the knee and punching the other, Dawn made it into the room.

Right as the door closed behind her, she heard a click. She tried the doorknob and found it to be locked.

"Great. " She said as she turned to look around the small room. It seemed to be a small conference room. It had a long table and ten chairs around it. The odd thing about this room was that there was a camera in the upper left corner closest to her and it seemed to follow her every move.

The next odd thing that she noticed was that, coming from the large vents on the wall facing the door, a light red smoke began to fill the room.

Dawn began to cough immediately and feel light headed. She tried covering her mouth but it was no use, too much smoke had gotten into her lungs. With a last futile cough and a weak call for Eliot, she fell to the floor.


	13. Chapter 13

AN: Soooooo….JustWhelmed will tell you how much I stressed over that. Keep that in mind please as you hate me.

Disclaimer: I own Dawn, sort of, with JustWhelmed, but then we own nothing else. Darn it.

Eliot heard the door click over the moan of the first thug as Eliot's heel made contact with his right knee.

There were four other goons. The bravest, the one coming closest, did not have the muscles of the coordination to make it matter, so Eliot just stepped into the punch. It was faster. He saw the fear in the eyes of the other man when a split lip did not even slow him down, but then Eliot delivered a crippling blow to his solar plexus and knocked him in the path of the other henchmen.

He thought he heard Dawn call his name weakly over the com, but then he was smiling as he heard the much louder crunch of someone else's bone. It was an amateur move to drop your concentration when your nose splintered, but a predictable one none the less. Eliot flipped him over and the other two fell like bowling pins. Before they could stand, he had delivered swift kicks to their heads, knocking them out cold.

"You can come out now, Dawn," he said, wiping the blood away from his mouth.

He frowned when he got no answer. "Dawn?" He tried the door, found it locked. He looked in the window, saw her lying on the floor, not moving, surrounded by red smoke. "Dawn!" He broke the glass with his elbow, holding his breath so as not to inhale the poison.

The door was locked from the inside too.

From her location in the top of the tower in front of the security console, Madeline Draco smiled to herself. "It's too late now," she cooed to her parrot. "What do you think, my love? Should we let the poor man in to see his failure?" She watched Eliot trying to break the door down, could hear him cursing and pleading. "No," she said finally, reclining back in her seat. "That whole group needs to suffer for trying to steal from me. After all," she again addressed the parrot, "I was only trying to take what was rightfully mine." She stroked the bird's jewel-like head and watching the red smoke swirling around the body of her niece like so many red snakes.

The bird gave a loud squawk and Madeline turned her gaze back to Eliot's screen. He was about two feet from the door, ready to slam himself against it again, when it swung open gently of its own accord.

"WHAT?!" Madeline shrieked, causing her pet to ruffle its feather indignantly. She watched him pick Dawn up and, cradling her to his chest, rush out into the hallway where the air was clearer. "It's too late anyway," she repeated to herself. With slightly shaking hands, she placed her bird on her shoulder and picked up a suitcase. Inside the suitcase was close to $500,000 in cash. "It's too late now."

Downstairs, Eliot collapsed in the hallway, Dawn's head lolling back despite the care he took. "Don't you die on me!" He ordered, feeling desperately for a pulse. "Dawn!" No thready beat met his fingertips, no rise and fall of her chest met his sight.

Eliot knew what death looked like, what it felt like. "No, you can't do this to me. You can't. I need you." He brushed her curls away from her face, eyes filling with unshed tears. He forgot about the ear buds, forgot about everything but her skin under his touch, already cooling. "Dawn, please, don't leave me….I, I love you."

His kissed her forehead, tears slipping silently down his cheeks to land in her hair. "It's okay, darlin', it's okay."

"Eliot?" Fredrick Draco's voice crackled over the ear bud. "Dawn, is she—Eliot?"

"She's gone." He wanted to rip his clothes and wail. He wanted to bury a knife in his chest, carve out his still-beating heart and place in on God's alter if that's what it took to bring her back. Instead, he wiped his eyes. "Do you need my help?"

"No." Fredrick's voice broke. "We've, ah…shit."

"I've got control of the security cameras," Hardison said quietly, gently. "Madeline's coming out on her own. We've got it."

"Stay with her," Fredrick pleaded. "Don't leave her alone."

"I won't," Eliot promised. He took out both of their ear buds and put them in his pocket. "I do love you," he told her. "I don't know how, I barely know you, you just, wormed your way under my skin somehow." He smiled weakly, wiping the blood off her temple from where he had kissed her. "You're probably happier than you would have been trying to make a life with me. I would've tried, but, God, I destroy everything I touch." He took a deep breath. "Dawn, I am so, so sorry."

He laid his thumb on the corner of her mouth. "I'm sorry," he whispered again, pressing his lips gently against hers.

She tasted like cinnamon and wax.

Barely had he moved away when her eyelids fluttered open and her chest began to move as her lungs filled with air. "Eliot?"

He just stared. "You-you were dead."

She smiled at his flabbergasted face. "Do I have to go through this every time I want a kiss from you? 'Cause I gotta admit, that's a little steep. I might do it, of course, but—"

He reclaimed her lips, effectively shutting her up. "You can have a kiss," He said when they broke apart of oxygen, "any damn time you want."

"I'll take you up on that," she mumbled against his mouth, hand in his collar.

He pulled back, wondering if she meant that, if that was a good thing.

"What's wrong?" She asked, not sure how to interpret the solemn look on his face.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"You don't know what that means," he said, pulling back a little further. "I want it to be just you, and you get just me, forever, if you love me back. And I'm not easy to love. I'll never lift a hand against you, but I'm not gonna keep regular hours and my job is dangerous. You gotta risk losing me and not seeing me for a while at a time. And I suck at this. If you hadn't died…I don't know how often I can have talks like this."

She nodded, listening.

"I don't have the strength to tell you to go," he said, not looking away from her face. "But I do have the strength to let you walk away. I'm just asking that you do it now, instead of later."

She shifted to a more comfortable position on his lap, sliding her knees on either side of his thighs. "I'm not going anywhere," she declared.

"You should," he replied. Despite his words, his hands slid along her thighs, fingers digging involuntarily into her jeans to keep her in place.

"Eliot," she said, winding her fingers into his hair, mostly because she could. "I understand that it may be hard to trust yourself with me, with us. But, can you trust me to know what I'm getting myself into?"

The corner of his mouth quirked up in a half smile. "I can try."

"Good." Her own smile grew. "Then shut up and kiss me."

"Yes, ma'am."

Outside, Madeline was walking swiftly toward her convertible, stopping in her tracks when she saw her husband leaning against the car. "Darling!" She said, hand creeping up to smooth her hair. "I didn't expect to see you."

"Going somewhere, sweetheart?" He asked, indicating the suitcase.

"Yes, actually, uhm, emergency business trip. I was going to call you from the car." She noticed the file in his hands. "What's that?"

"See for yourself."

She had to drop the money to catch the folder. She flipped through the contents and saw all of her evidence against Dawn's sanity. She looked up and saw Nate, Sophie, Parker, and Hardison standing by her husband. She knew that the jig was up, but she opened her mouth to appeal to them anyway.

"Hey!" There came a new voice from the door of the building. Dawn came walking out, hand twined loosely in Eliot's.

"Dawn," Fredrick breathed while Madeline shrieked-

"You're dead!"

Dawn shrugged. "Guess I'm harder to kill than you thought."

"Tha-that's impossible!"

"Yeah, well," Dawn looked and Eliot for a moment, unable to restrain her smile. "It's called a happy ending."

"Bitch," Parker added helpfully.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Disclaimer: StaroftheDunedain came up with the idea for this story and she was gracious enough to let me join in on the fun. Leverage belongs to rich people.

AN: It's been great getting to help StaroftheDunedain write this story and I've enjoyed working on this for you guys. Thanks for reading and I hope ya enjoy this chapter. –JustWhelmed

The Leverage headquarters was looking a bit full right now. Dawn was surrounded by her three nannies, Andrew, Frederick, and her father. Frederick went to get Richard Culpeper while his, soon to be ex, wife was being charged with kidnapping his niece. When Dawn saw Richard she ran to him, and held him for a good five minutes before either one of them dared to let go.

It was a heartwarming scene. Nate almost hated breaking up the family reunion to give them some good news. Almost.

"Folks, I hate to interrupt, but I figured you guys would want to know something." Nate said stepping close to the family.

The loved ones let go of each and wiped away stray tears from their eyes as they readied themselves for whatever Nate had to say.

Hardison walked up to Nate with folders in his hands and handed one to Andrew and one to Dawn.

When he saw the confused looks on their faces, Nate spoke again, "Now that Draco has unfortunately been let go (let go?) and is now looking at serving time for kidnapping and possibly a couple other felonies, Mr. Castle will need a partner for his business. Which is where you come in, Andrew, that's just all the fancy paperwork naming you as a partner." Nate said as he looked at Andrew.

Andrew looked at his uncle shocked.

"If you still want to work with an old man like me, I would be proud to have you." Fred said smiling softly at him.

"Thanks, Uncle Fred, I truly appreciate it." Andrew replied as he gave him a hug.

When the two parted, they looked back at Nate, waiting for his explanation on Dawn's folder.

"Andrew told us about the bakery business that your mother owned and how it was lost when you 'died.' We weren't able to get your mother's bakery back seeing as how it was, I'm afraid to say, sold off in pieces to separate markets." Nate paused for a second to catch his breath, and he saw the look of sadness immediately fall over not only Dawn's but the entire family's faces. He quickly spoke up with a smile on his face. "But that doesn't mean that we weren't able to get everything that was due to you when you were able to get your trust fund. We were able to obtain every cent that was supposed to go to you."

Dawn's face lit up before she tackled Nate in a bear hug. "Thank you! You have done so much for us, Mr. Ford, you all have." Dawn said as she stepped back. She looked at everyone in the room, her gaze stopping on Eliot for a moment, and then resting on the thief and hacker who were holding hands. She smiled and said, "I think I know what to do with all the money."

"What?" Parker asked, tilting her head to the side in a way that reminded Dawn of a puppy.

"To kids in foster care. They need it more than me." Dawn replied. She remembered the time when it was just her and Parker at one point and Parker, going at 70mph, talked about how she and Hardison fit together for different reasons, including the fact they both were in foster care.

Parker just gave a big grin as Hardison nodded his head at Dawn with a look of gratitude in his eyes.

It may have been her imagination, but Dawn swore she saw the same look on Eliot's face.

Dawn's three nannies decided to take it upon themselves to make a big meal to celebrate the occasion, which the crew, including Nate, was more than happy to take part in. While the three women cooked everyone else scattered about, talking with each other. Nate and Sophie were talking with Frederick while Hardison and Andrew were talking. Parker was sitting on the kitchen counter being entertained by the nannies. Dawn was with Eliot and her dad.

"So you're the one who single handedly saved my daughter?" Richard asked Eliot.

Dawn smiled and put her hand in Eliot's with which he squeezed. "I had a little help, your daughter knows how to use things around her as resourceful tools to fight off some guys." Eliot replied.

"How so?" Richard asked.

"Let's just say we should watch making her angry when she's around a lamp or frying pan."

"That's my girl." Richard smiled. Something he had not done in a while. "So, Dawn, what are your plans now?"

Dawn looked at Eliot, who gave her slight grin, and she replied, "Well, I think I have an idea for a book."

"Really? What's it about?"

"I think it will be a spin-off of _Sleeping Beauty_ where the princess is saved by a knight in shining…plaid."

Eliot shifted a little and smirked at her. "Sounds good."

Back in the kitchen the three nannies were getting close to finishing up their cooking and were still discussing the whole job with Parker.

"It was really like a fairy tale, especially the part when she was all dead." Parker said as she made a face like a dead bug.

"Love's first kiss, works every time." Macy said.

Parker looked at her like she learned that Santa Clause was real. "I knew you were-"

"Shhh!" All three nannies said at the same time with fingers to their lips.

Parker nodded, made the motion of locking of her lips with a key, smiled, and walked over to the couch and sat beside Hardison, who immediately put his arm around his girl.

The nannies in the kitchen were getting the food ready to serve as they talked amongst themselves.

"I knew that everything would work out." Macy said.

Stacy nodded. "I'm just glad that Richard is back to his normal self again. He was a dark place for a while."

"And I like that Eliot; he's perfect for our Dawn." Lacy said. As the three turned their eyes to look on Dawn and Eliot standing with Richard. Eliot now had his arm around her waist and Dawn had head rested on his shoulder. Richard was looking fondly at them as he caught up with his daughter.

After a few moments of enjoying the scene before them, Macy spoke up loud enough for everyone to hear, "Alright! Time to eat!"

Everyone went to walk over to the conference table where the food was being brought in. As everyone got situated and began to put food on their plates, Parker looked around the room and smiled. Nate said something to Sophie that made her chuckle, Fred and Richard were having small talk, Andrew was helping the three nannies bring in the last of the food, and Dawn and Eliot were smiling at each other as if they speaking to each other telepathically.

Parker smiled and said, "And they lived happily ever after."

Hardison leaned closer to her and replied, "Yes they do, baby, yes they do." Then he kissed her on her temple.


	15. Chapter 15

AN: So, JustWhelmed and I are suckers for epilogues. Seriously though, it has been so much fun to be working together on this. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm just playing in someone (TNT) else's sandbox.

Magic…in today's world, people dismiss it. They think that science and logic rule everything. But I think, people may rely on those fine things a little too much. Maybe that rustle out the corner of your eye really was a fairy darting into the shadows. Maybe it was something else. Maybe, instead of trying to view the world with eyes wide open, we should close our eyes and focus on what we can feel—that prickle on our skin, that tingle in your fingertips. So much comes down to one question….

What do you believe?

The End

Dawn looked down at her computer, at her final words, and smiled.

"What's put that grin on your face?" Eliot asked, leaning against the door frame with a dish towel over one shoulder.

"I just finished our story," Dawn said, pushing the desk chair away forcefully so that it would roll over to her husband.

"Did you finally come up with a title?"

"Mmhmm," She stood up and wiped some flour off of his nose, "The Sleeping Beauty Job". She leant forward until they were almost kissing and her smile widened.

Eliot closed the gap, pressing his lips to hers and his hands over her swelling belly. "I like that," he mumbled, stroking his thumbs over her abdomen.

She put her hands over his, smile softening slightly. "So, you know how I went to the doctor yesterday?"

"Sorry again, Babe, I had to-"

She put her hand over his mouth, giggling when he licked her palm. "It's fine. I just…didn't tell you everything yet."

His eyes were wary. "Is everything okay?"

She nodded and held up two fingers, wiggling them around.

It took a moment for him to get it, but when he did, he dropped down until he was level with her stomach. "Twins?"

She nodded, carding her hands through his long hair. "Twins."

"Twins…" He stood up picking her up and twirling her around in a circle. "You're a genius!"

"You helped!"

He pulled her in for another kiss, lingering over her mouth. "Marrying you is the best thing I've ever done." She put her hands on his chest, sliding them up and down gently. He settled his hands on her hips and pulled her a little more firmly against himself. "What do you want?"

"Waffles."

"What is it with you and waffles?"


End file.
